Land promoter W. P. Soash (1877-1961) of Iowa came (1905) to Texas to sell parcels of XIT Ranch land. He founded the towns of Ware in Dallam County and Olton in Lamb County. He platted Soash (1 mi. N) on part of C. C. Slaughter's Long S Ranch in 1909 and brought trainloads of farmers from the East and Midwest to settle this area. The town flourished, but his proposed Gulf, Soash & Pacific Railroad failed when the Santa Fe Line was extended. A four-year drought soon caused Soash to decline. In the 1970s, only the shell of the bank building remained to mark the original townsite. (1978)